Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Virginia Lawmakers Counter Atheists: School Prayer

The Virginia Senate has passed a religious freedom bill to allow voluntary spoken prayers at school events and other expressions of faith in response to threats of financial ruin to local schools by atheist lawyers. The bill is expected to pass the Republican-held lower house, but it's yet to be known if newly elected Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will sign it into law.

Sen. Bill Carrico’s SB 236 is written to allow student prayer and permit the formation of religious clubs. It would also require forums for faith speech at school events, and specifies that students can wear clothes or jewelry with spiritual iconography or messages.

Carrico said the bill provides legal cover to schools and protects the constitutional right of “each and every student to express their beliefs according to the dictates of their conscience” without giving “preferential treatment” to any one religion.

Democratic senators argued that the bill is unconstitutional and potentially coercive.

The Senate’s 20-18 vote was a victory for Republican Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County, one of the General Assembly’s most persistent advocates for allowing prayer and religious expression in public settings. The final vote broke largely along party lines. Just one Democrat, Sen. Phillip Puckett of Russell County, supported the bill. Sen. John Watkins of Powhatan was the only Republican to oppose it.

“When they’re doing assignments, when they work so hard to become valedictorian of their class, they shouldn’t be censored by the school system as to how they express themselves when they speak,” Carrico said. “This bill is nothing more than the protection of the students, while they’re at school, to able to do those things.”

Carrico’s bill (SB 236) now goes to the Republican-dominated House of Delegates, where he expects it to get a friendly reception.

“Now we’ll see how the governor reacts to it,” Carrico said after today’s floor vote.